In the United States, current and proposed cuts to federal funding for science will cause widespread harm to research, healthcare, and local economies. Communicating the harmful effects of funding cuts is important for informing policy and protecting the future of science. Our interdisciplinary team created an interactive website that illustrates the projected effect of funding cuts on communities nationwide.

In a series of online experiments, we are testing the effectiveness of text, quiz, and map-based interventions that illustrate local and national economic losses that associated with NIH funding cuts. We've demonstrated that these interventions effectively increase knowledge of the funding cuts, decrease approval, and increase intentions to take action—such as by contacting congressional representatives and sharing information. Insights from these online experiments have directly informed the resources we provide on our public website. Our approach builds on our prior work during the COVID-19 pandemic, in which we paired controlled experiments with large-scale online field studies to communicate information about viral exposure risk, as well as waning immunity and vaccines.

Explore the interactive SCIMaP website here: scienceimpacts.org
SCIMaP has also been featured in many national and local news outlets; you can find some examples on the Press page.

Project Co-Leads:
Allie Sinclair, University of Pennsylvania / Rice University
Joshua Weitz, University of Maryland

Project Collaborators:
Mallory Harris, University of Maryland
Clio Andris, Georgia Institute of Technology
Emily Falk, University of Pennsylvania
Danielle Cosme, University of Pennsylvania
Angela Fagerlin, University of Utah
Ellen Peters, University of Oregon